Slitting apparatus



March 12, 1935. w, LE LLQN "1,994,137

' SLITTING APPARATUS Filed July 5. 1954 nL/EFZZ'EE [hay/ s UieguiZ/an atenteol e SLITTING APPARATUS Charles W. Leguillon, Akron, Ohio, assignor to The B. F. Goodrich Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation ofv New York v Application July 5. 1934, Serial No. 733,737 5 Claims. (01. ice-s) This invention relates to slitting apparatus place to bolts 21, 22. Screws 23, 24, passing and is especially useful where it is necessary to through threaded openings in the caps, hold the slit very thin material such as unvulcanized sheet boxes 17, 13111 place. rubber to produce very narrow strips of thread- A pair of gears 25, 26 are fixed to the projectlike dimensions. ing'ends o'f shafts and 11 and are engaged 5 It has heretofore been proposed to slit a sheet with each other to cause the shafts to turn in of material into narrow ribbons by the cooperaunison. Another gear wheel 27 is also fixed to tion of two sets of discs mounted upon parallel shaft 11 and engages a pinion (not shown) whereshaits with the discs operating in intercalated by the device is driven.

relation to shear the material. This has hereto- Shaft 10 is formed with a shoulder 28 near the 10 fore been determined to be diflicult in commercial frame member 12 and a cylindrical portion 29 practice because of the difilculties encountered in having a keyway in which a key 30 is fixed. keepingthe discs sharpened and in operative en- The cutting discs 31, which are slidably mountgagement. ed on the keyed portion of the shaft, have cylin- Where elastic materials such as unvulcanized or drical faces, and their sides are slightly dished vulcanized rubber or plastic materials are to be to relieve their cutting edges. Resilient spacoperated upon, the plasticity and elasticity of the ing rings 33, preferably molded from rubber or material interferes with the cutting operation and similarly resilient material, such as that derequires close adjustment of the discs. scribed in U. 8. Letters Patent No. 1,929,453, are

The principal objects of the present invention slidably mounted on the shaft between the cutare to provide resilient lateral support of the ting discs. The cutting discs and spacing rings, cutting discs, to provide automatic adjustment alternately arranged, are prevented from turnof the discs, to provide collective and local ading on the shaft by the key 30 and are retained justment thereof, and to accomplish the slitting -on the shaft between slidable collars 34 and 35.

j into narrower strips than has heretofore been In order to provide for automatic adjustment possible. I a of the discs and collective adjustment of their Other objects are simplicity of construction and spacing, a collar 36 is slidably mounted on the ease of acfiustment. shaft and is provided with means for local ad Further objects will appear from the following justment of its width and means for holding it a description and the accompanying drawing. laterally against the collar 34. For this purpose 0f the drawing: a convenient arrangement is a plurality. of screws Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the preferred form 37 axially disposed parallel to shaft 10 and enteroi the device. ing equally spaced threaded apertures in collar 2 is Sectional detail View, ak 01! line 36. These boltsact as a series of circumferenof tially spaced screw jacks. The shaft 10 is thread- 3 is a Sectional detail w, taken on line ed to engage an adjusting collar 38 and a lock -3 0 collar 39, whereby pressure may be applied along Fi 4 i n nla i n l vi w fthe shaft to the collar 36. A resilient ring of t discs d their Separators taken on line rubber or similarly resilient material 40 and a 40 f metal washer 41 are located between collars 36 Ref to the drawing. the numerals 10 and and 38, the purpose of the resilient washer being 11 designate respectively the upper and lower resiliently to compensate for any slight variaparallel shafts upon which the cutting discs are tions of adjustment. I mounted. These shafts are rotatively mounted In order to reduce the pressure necessary to in bearings supported by frame members 12, 13. accomplish adjustment of the longitudinal spac- Frames 12 and 13 are rigidly mounted upon a ing of the cutter discs and to more resiliently supbed plate 14 and are formed with vertical slots port the discs laterally, the spacing rings 33 are in which boxes 15, 16 for rotatably supporting preferably formed with flow cavities 33a prothe shaft 11, and-boxes 1'7, 18 for rotatably supvided by forming the rings with concentric raised 50 porting the shaft 10 are slidably mounted. Boxes beads 33b or other projections. 15, 16 rest at the bottom of the slots while boxes The shaft 11 is similarlyprovided with similar 17 are supported thereabove by suitable blocking. cutting discs 42 spaced apart by resilient rings Cap members 19 and 20 are fixed to the frames 12, 43. The cutting discs and spacing rings are held 33 13 across the open ends of the slots, being held in between rigid collars 44 and 45, the collar 4t abutting a shoulder 46 of the shaft and the collar 45 being held between the cutting discs and a threaded adjustment collar 47 engaging screw threads formed on the shaft.

As compensation for slight variations of adjustment and of thickness of the discs has been provided for on shaft 10, the collar 36 of shaft 10 is not essential to shaft 11 and is replaced by a plain collar 48. Resilient washers 49 and 50-are, however, provided to take care of slight deflections of the cutting discs. A locking collar 51 is provided as on shaft 10.

I'he cutting discs 31 and 42 are arranged to cooperate in intercalated shearing relation as seen in Figs. 1 and 2. As the adjustment has been shown applied to one end only of the rolls, it is necessary that one of the shafts, preferably shaft 11, have free endwise movement so that it may float axially in making the adjustments.

While the device may be used with relatively wide-faced cutters, the principal advantage of the invention is that it may be used for slitting extremely narrow strips. For instance when the device is used to slit a very thin sheet of unvulcanized rubber deposited from a natural or artificial aqueous dispersion of rubber, it is possible to use cutting discs having a face fifteen thousandths of an inch or less wide and correspondingly thin'spacing rings and successfully to cut such material into ribbons not over fifteen thousandths of an inch wide, at least a hundred of such ribbons being cut simultaneously.

As cutting of materials such. as sheet rubber is facilitated by lubrication of the sheetit is advisable to form the resilient spacing rings of material which will be substantially unaffected by the lubricant used. Where the lubricant is water, soft vulcanized rubber may be used, but where oily lubricants are used the spacing rings should be made of a material having a high resistance to such substances, such as the material described in U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,929,453.

In the operation-of the device, the screws 3'! are first adjusted so that each projects from the collar 36 by the same amount. Cutters and spacing washers of the proper width are assembled on the shafts, and, by adjustment of collars 38 and 47, the proper spacing of the cutting discs is accomplished with the cutting discs of the respective shafts in intercalated relation. The shafts are then rotated and a sheet of the material to be cut is fed between the cutters. Should it be found that the cutting discs fail to cut atsome lateral zone of the sheet, the screw 37 in line with that zone is adjusted so as to advance it toward the cutting discs until successful cutting occurs.

After the machine has operated for such a time that the cutters become dull, the shafts may be removed with the cutters thereon and the cutters ground across the faces thereof simultaneously without removing them from the shafts.

I laimza 1. Apparatus for slitting sheet material, said apparatus comprising a pair of parallel driven shafts, a plurality of cutting discs slidably but non-rotatably mounted upon each shaft with the discs of one shaft engaging those of the other in intercalated relation, lubricant resistant resilient spacers between successive discs of at least one of the shafts, said spacers having chambered lateral faces to facilitate reduction in thickness of the spacers by pressure applied axially of the shaft, and means carried by the shaft for simultaneously adjusting the spacing of the discs by axial compression of the spacers.

2. Apparatus for slitting sheet material, said apparatus comprising a pair of parallel driven shafts, a plurality of cutting discs slidably but non-rotatably mounted upon each shaft with the discs of one shaft engaging those of the other in intercalated relation, lubricant resistant resilient spacing means mounted on each shaft between the cutting discs thereon said spacing means intercalated relation, resilient spacing means mounted on each shaft between the cutting discs thereon, and means for simultaneously adjusting the spacing of the discs on one of the shafts locally of their peripheries to compensate for errors.

4. Apparatus for slitting sheet material, said apparatus comprising a pair of'parallel driven shafts, a plurality of cutting discs, slidably but non-rotatably mounted upon each shaft with the discs of one shaft engaging those of the other in intercalated relation,

and means on one of the shafts for simultaneously resilient spacing means mounted upon each shaft between the cutting discs thereon, means on each shaft for simultaneously adjusting the spacing of the discs thereong adjusting the spacing of the discs locally oftheir peripheries to compensate for errors.

5. Apparatus for slitting sheet material,

apparatus comprising a driven shaft, a series of cutting discs slidably but non-rotatablymounted on said shaft, a cutting member adapted to cooperate with all ofthe discs on said shaft, resili-' ent spacing memberson saidshaft between the cutting discs, means for simultaneously compressing all of the spacing members to change the spacing of the discs, and auxiliary means for varying the adJustm'ent of the discs locally of their peripheries. v y

' CHARLES W. LEGUIILON. 

